Our Company is Mindar Holdings Trading as JT's Ladies and Men's Hairstylists.
The evolution of our industry over the last 10 to 15 years or whatever
time we've been in this business, is quite exciting and we have got to
the stage that without Magic Salon Software and Computers we would be
completely buggered in our business.

I'd have to be very very honest and say that the Magic Salon Software & computer
systems that I work with in my Salons and the Magic Salon Management
System in my office, does more than I require.

In fact I believe that Magic Salon Software gather more information
than most hairdressers will ever use, however the information is
there because some people work their business differently to the way
I work mine.

Magic Salon had a System that suited my business including: -

A Point of Sale System that did everything my staff had to do manually.

A system that every member of my staff would be able of use.

A simple, "not too computer complicated" system for Hairdressers to work with.

I wanted my Managers to do everything at their end - I didn't want to
employ 2 or 3 additional people in an office to convert the data into
orders, graphs or whatever. My view is, if you are paying Managers and
Staff at the Salon, they should do the complete job. Magic Salon provided
these features where all the others I had seen failed.

Magic Salon has developed a brilliant wage package.
It collects all the: -

Group Tax.

Superannuation.

Payroll Tax.

And Prints Plain Paper Group Certificates!

Wages would be an absolute nightmare, if we didn't have a computer - and Magic.

The Managers are doing it all in the Salon.

All I have to do is write the cheque out for the Super or the Group Tax.

Wages are paid directly into the banks, another benefit of the computer with the wages.

Magic's wages are very easily setup by the Manager or whoever is in charge
of the Salon and definitely makes paperwork or controlling your incentive
systems much easier than any other computer system that I have seen.

Another criteria I had for a computer system was that it must make money.
It needed to be able to do some form of advertising by Direct Mail.
In those early days, I believed that direct mail was going to be big,
and it is. We mail out over 4000 letters a week and it is a huge part
of our business.

The system of Direct Mailing available in Magic Salon is excellent.
There are numerous search fields, actually more fields than we would ever
use.

I have had the lucky privilege to have been able to sit on the committee
of the PH Executive Club and once a year we take a whole group of people
away. This year we took 300 people from New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia
to New Zealand. Part of the programme is talking about our businesses,
computerisation and the whole lot.

After talking to people , from New Zealand, Malaysia and the rest of Australia
at the PH Executive Club meetings, about computers and the computer systems that they've got,
I came away from the meeting in Queenstown thinking that our Magic Salon
Software & computers are still far, far, more advanced, in every aspect to
all other systems.

I felt it time to convey to you and your team our thanks for your
professional help and support as we have converted our salon "Alchemy"
to the Magic Aspire system.

The history and location of our salon is significant to understanding
the potential for disaster such a huge change could make, a disaster
which did not occur.

Our salon is 27 years established in the largest Westfield Shopping Centre
in Australia. My wife finished her apprenticeship in the salon some
22 years ago then went on to purchase her first salon.
Ten years later we purchased "Janns" in Westfield Parramatta from
it's second owner and re-named it Alchemy. We have 9 full time staff,
trade 7 days each week most weeks of the year. We are a busy salon
specialising in fine cutting and colour, our cliental number about 2000.

We have operated a manual appointment book, stock

control, external book keeper and payroll system.
We have had little benefit from summary reports or - any other type of
report. As we build the business and my wife reduces her hours
(3 days per week) the need to bring the salon into the 21st Century was
upon us.

We started the search for the "perfect software solution" encompassing point
of sale, appointments, stock control, full financial package including wages
& bonuses, marketing and a suite of reports covering all sales and financial
reporting.

We carefully examined several systems, most of those available to the
Australian Market. We quickly discovered that there is a number of programs
on the market that only offer a solution to some of the needs of a busy salon
like ours. These programs seem to focus on attractive Graphics and being
touch screen friendly to your staff but completely ignore vital financial
and reporting needs. The overwhelming impression I was left with after some
of these presentations was the assumption that I was "a hairdresser" and
therefore probably computer illiterate or maybe just illiterate and that
I would be overawed by the ease of use of the appointment book.
In my case they got it wrong and did not bother to enquire as to my
background or knowledge of software and hardware.

We eliminated all those that did not offer the total package or seemed
more interested in selling us hardware at inflated prices. I then eliminated
two more systems based on my fear that customer support was to be given by a
local "agent", who in both cases happened to be a retired hairdresser turned
programmer - I think not.

On first contact with the Magic Salon Team (by email) I was impressed with
the rapid response. Intelligent questions were asked of me so we could
ascertain the suitability of the Aspire product. I was given a trial period
to asses the product and during that time I received attention to all my
questions promptly. It was obvious to my wife and I the Magic Aspire package
is a full software solution for our salon. The paperwork was in plain English
and fair, the "training module" built into the program was ingenious.

The decision was at this point to be made on reputation, simplicity of use,
cost offsets and ongoing quality support. An advantage we discovered was the
staff wages and bonuses module was so complete we were able to do away with
our current payroll provider. This single monthly saving fully offset the
monthly cost of Magic Aspire. It paid for itself from day one.

Magic Aspire was the clear winner!

Since installation we are convinced our decision to go with Magic Aspire was
correct. We have used the program for 3 busy months, our team embraced it
easily and to my delight there has already been 3 "upgrades" available to
download. Magic will continue to grow and develop with our salon. Both you
and Jonathan must never sleep because you are always available to take our
call and answer our questions. The back up & support given by Magic has been
both generous and "on demand". Every aspect of the software is used in our
salon and to date we have found it to be faultless.

My wife and I thank you for developing your product, offering it to the
market at a reasonable fee and supporting it with intelligent back up.

Shockwaves has been operating since 1986. In our formative years I knew
that it would be necessary to introduce a computerised system to the salon
in order to manage the business more effectively and efficiently. In our
early years we tried other systems but were not completely happy with
the program or level of support. By 1997 we were ready to upgrade our
third system and I undertook extensive research into three of the most
appealing salon systems then on the market.

Eventually I chose Magic Salon.

I was aware that no generic system would fit exactly with all of my requirements
but chose Magic Salon for several reasons.

I was satisfied they were committed to after sales service.

They had demonstrated their commitment to ongoing system development.

They were based in my home state, which enabled me to develop a
close relationship with the management and software developers.

The system was already functioning in salons.

The system was easy to use with plenty of flexibility.

It integrated a number of operational aspects of my business
such as point of sale processing, record keeping, detailed reporting
and wage processing.

It was competitively priced.

Magic Salon Systems Pty Ltd provides excellent ongoing support, is regularly
working at developing and upgrading the system and is always willing
to listen to my suggestions and ideas on how the system might be improved.

Magic Salon, in my view, is a very good system and ideally suited to
hairdressing salons.